Association between mental health, psychological characteristics, and motivational functions of volunteerism among Polish and Ukrainian volunteers during the Russo-Ukrainian War

The Russo-Ukrainian War has led to a humanitarian crisis, and many people volunteered to help affected refugees. This cross-sectional survey study investigates the relationships between the psychological impact of participation, coping mechanisms, and motivational functions of volunteering during the Russo-Ukrainian War among 285 Ukrainian and 435 Polish volunteers (N = 720). Multivariate linear regression was used to examine relationships between motivational functions and psychosocial and demographic characteristics. Ukrainian volunteers reported significantly higher Hyperarousal and Avoidance, Depression, Anxiety, and Stress, Problem-focused, Emotion-focused, and Avoidant coping, as well as total scores of Hardiness and Psychological Capital than Polish counterparts. Linear regression analysis found that Impact of the Event Scale results, Coping with Stress, being a female, unemployed, and religious were significantly associated with higher motivational functions. Ukrainian volunteers could significantly reduce negative feelings and strengthen social networks and religious faith by volunteering, while Polish volunteers were significantly more likely to gain skills and psychosocial development from helping others.

Similarly, few empirical works have addressed the psychological consequences of volunteering in wartime circumstances resulting from providing aid to war victims 22 .The presented study makes it possible to fill this gap by considering variables such as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress symptoms, and coping with stress related to helping refugees.This inclusion is much needed, as the outbreak of war and the situation in Ukraine are traumatic and highly threatening.Media coverage concerning this, contact with individuals who have lost their loved ones and were forced to migrate and abandon their previous lives, can be a source of deterioration of the psychological condition of volunteers.In fact, research performed in natural disasters shows that volunteering in the humanitarian sector and helping disaster victims may be associated with a high likelihood of negative mental health consequences 23 .In addition to being exposed to traumatic situations, feeling threatened and afraid about their safety, and facing demanding working conditions, volunteers complain about negative reactions from the persons they help, lack of sleep, long working hours, being separated from their loved ones, interpersonal conflicts within the team, as well as material, financial difficulties 24,25 .
Omoto and Snyder 26 point out that volunteering activity depends to a large extent on personality traits, which lead people to offer volunteering services.That is why variables that we controlled were the psychological capital 27 and the mental hardiness of the volunteers 28 .Psychological capital is a hidden variable that includes self-efficacy, optimism, hope and resilience.Research confirms their importance for motivation and work engagement, proactivity, the use of effective problem-solving strategies, and mental health 27 .Hardiness has been described by the authors of the concept as a personality dimension, constituting a source of resilience and making it possible to treat life changes as challenges.Hardiness leads to involvement in what one does (commitment), the belief that the individual has an influence on the events forming their life (control), and the perception of change as a stimulus for one's development (challenge) 28 .The relevance of these traits for volunteering activity has not been studied yet, so their inclusion in the model may lead to interesting findings.In addition to examining the severity of stress related to helping refugees the coping strategies undertaken were studied.These factors may translate into the individual feeling of fulfilment in volunteering activity.
Based on the conceptual framework of volunteering 29 , and because research has shown the significance of health and different personality traits in volunteer activity 30 , this study aimed to explore the possible associations between socio-demographic variables, mental health outcomes, coping with stress, psychological characteristics, such as hardiness (commitment, control, challenge), the psychological capital (hope, self-efficacy, optimism, resilience) and motivational functions of volunteerism for refugees among Poles and Ukrainians during the current Russo-Ukrainian war.Due to the multifaceted nature of the analyses and the fact that it is a new area of studies, the possible associations between the studied variables were researched in an exploratory manner.
Along with the exploration of the hypothesized relationships, the level of each variable was compared between Polish and Ukrainian volunteers.The relevance of these psychological traits and characteristics for volunteering activity during the war has yet to be studied, so their inclusion in the model may lead to interesting findings.Polish participants were chosen as a comparator group because they were bystanders in proximity to the conflicted area.Therefore, we formulated the following null hypothesis: H0 There are no statistically significant differences in the levels of post-traumatic stress, anxiety, depression, stress, coping with stress, psychological characteristics, such as hardiness (commitment, control, challenge), psychological capital (hope, self-efficacy, optimism, resilience) and motivational functions of volunteering between Ukrainian and Polish volunteers.This study will help to fill the existing gap in the literature by creating a more holistic model of volunteer engagement, which considers factors on which research has yet to be focused.We believe it is a step towards building a system for looking after volunteers' well-being and supporting them, which may translate directly into their commitment.

Design, study procedure, and participants
The study was conducted in two countries (Poland and Ukraine) from November 7 to December 30, 2022.Potential respondents were electronically invited in light of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.The request for the distribution of the questionnaire and participation in the study was addressed to organizations engaged in volunteer work for Ukrainian refugees during the Russo-Ukrainian war.Information about this study and survey was posted on social media (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Telegram, and Viber).The survey was conducted via two online platforms (i.e., Google Forms Online Survey on social media and the SWPS University SONA platform).Online informed consent was obtained from all participants, and the data collected were anonymized and kept confidential.No incentives were offered to participants.The inclusion criteria for all participants were Polish or Ukrainian citizenship and aged between 18 and 70 years.To qualify to be volunteers, participants had to participate in volunteering activities to help Ukrainian refugees at least two times since the onset of the Russo-Ukrainian war.There were 1022 participants who completed the survey.Out of 1022 participants, the study used only data obtained from 720 volunteers who acted systematically and repeatedly participated in relief actions for refugees.The remaining 302 people, whose volunteer participation was episodic, were excluded from the sample.

Measurements of demographics and motivational functions of volunteering
This study used the 2022 Russo-Ukrainian war refugee volunteering questionnaire developed by study team members in Ukraine and Poland.The questionnaire consisted of questions related to (1)

Measurements of mental health outcomes, coping, and psychological characteristics
The 22-item Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) is a self-report questionnaire that corresponds to Diagnostic Statistical Manual Version IV (DSM-IV) symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).For each item, respondents indicated the severity of self-perceived symptoms in the past week on a Likert scale from 0 (not at all) to 4 (extremely) 31 .The IES-R was not intended to diagnose PTSD but to assess subjective distress and PTSD symptoms 32 .The 21-item Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scales (DASS-21) were used to measure the volunteers' mood status 33 .The total DASS-21 score was used for analysis based on previous research 34 .
The 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) measured volunteers' stress levels 35 .In contrast, the 28-item Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced Inventory (Brief-COPE) was used to measure effective and ineffective ways to cope with the stressful life events of volunteers 36 .The three subscales include problem-focused coping, emotion-focusing coping, and avoidant coping.
The revised Norwegian Resilience (Hardiness) Scale (DSR-15R) was used to measure the general hardiness dimension and three sub-dimensions (commitment, control, and challenge) of the volunteers 37 .The Short Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PsyCap) assessed the volunteers' psychological capital, including hope, self-efficacy, optimism, and resilience 38 .
Previously prepared Ukrainian versions of selected tools were used 34 .Some tools were translated into Polish (VFI) and Ukrainian (VFI, PSS-10, DSR-15R, PsyCap) for the purpose of this study following the back-translation procedure used for psychosocial questionnaires proposed by Brislin 39,40 .The original items of the measures were independently translated by the authors of this study and then translated back to their English versions by Polish and Ukrainian experts in the English language.The next step was to discuss the differences that occurred, and an unanimous consensus was achieved.For all scales, Cronbach's alphas were satisfactory for group analyses (see Table 1).

Statistical analysis
Categorical variables were presented as percentages of responses to the questions, calculated based on the number of respondents per response to the total number of responses.The Chi-square test was used for the comparison of the categorical variables.The total scores for VFI, IES-R, DASS-21, PSS-10, Brief-COPE, DSR-15R, PsyCap, and their respective subscales were expressed as mean and standard deviation.The Student's t-test was used to compare the differences in the psychosocial mean scores between the Ukrainian and Polish participants.Multivariate linear regression was used to calculate the association between VFI scores with the psychosocial scores and demographic characteristics for both populations and the whole sample.All tests were two-tailed, and a significance level of p < 0.05 was used.The statistical analysis was done in SPSS Statistic 28.0.

Informed consent statement
Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.Subjects are all above the age of 18 years, so no informed consent was needed from parents or guardians.

Comparison of demographic data and psychosocial profile
This study had 720 volunteers (Poland: 435; Ukraine: 285).The sociodemographic data of the volunteers are summarized in Table 2.The mean age of Polish and Ukrainian volunteers was 26.54 ± 8.85 and 30.13 ± 10.60 years, respectively.Majority of volunteers were women; had a university education; are religious; without chronic illness; presented at least average self-health rating; suffered from COVID-19 in the past 3 years; without past psychiatric history and without exposure to serious accident, life-threatening condition or disaster before the war; would likely volunteer for Ukrainian refugees again in the future; spend less than 2 h on media news-related to helping Ukrainian refugees; and had at least average sleep quality since volunteering.Little over half of Polish volunteers agreed that media exposure to the current war in Ukraine is psychologically traumatic, while just over one-third of Ukrainian volunteers agreed with it.In addition, Ukrainian volunteers had significantly higher DASS-21 total scores, depression, anxiety, and stress scores (p < 0.001).Furthermore, Ukrainian volunteers reported significantly higher scores in problem-focused, emotion-focused, and avoidant coping (p < 0.001).Lastly, significantly higher DSR-15R (p < 0.01) and PsyCap (p < 0.001) total scores were reported by Ukrainian volunteers.

Linear regression analysis with total VFI scores (motivation for volunteering) as the dependent variable
Table 4 shows the linear regression using VFI scores as the dependent variable and the other psychosocial scores as the independent variable.The linear regression analysis found that IES-R and Brief-COPE total scores were Table 5 shows the linear regression analysis results using VFI scores as the dependent variable and demographic characteristics as the independent variable.The linear regression analysis found that female gender, unemployment, and religion were significantly associated with higher VFI scores after adjusting other variables (p < 0.01).Interestingly, Polish volunteers with poor self-rated health status were significantly associated with higher VFI scores (p < 0.05) but not for Ukrainian counterparts.

Discussion
This is the first study comparing the extent of the motivational functions of volunteering, coping with stress, anxiety, depression, stress, and post-traumatic stress levels between volunteers from Poland and Ukraine during the Russo-Ukrainian war.The key findings are summarized as follows: Firstly, as expected, Ukrainian volunteers reported significantly higher scores for post-traumatic stress, anxiety, depression, and stress than Polish volunteers.Despite the adverse effects of the war on mental health, Ukrainian volunteers reported significantly higher scores in motivational functions of volunteering, including protective, social, enhancement, and religiosity.
Coping with stress styles are the strategies and behaviors that volunteers might use to manage the demands and challenges associated with the Russo-Ukrainian war.Ukrainian volunteers reported significantly higher scores in problem-focused, emotion-focused, and avoidant coping; domains of resilience including commitment and control as well as positive psychological capital including resilience and optimism.Hence, the formulated null hypothesis can be rejected.Fifth, higher IES-R scores, higher Brief-COPE scores, female gender, and religiosity were significantly associated with higher motivational functions of volunteering.
The theory and conceptual models behind volunteerism are complicated, and no single and integrated theory can explain the factors associated with volunteerism 29 .During peaceful times, volunteerism can be seen as an investment in one's human capital 41 .A sudden event, such as the Russo-Ukrainian war, may have a huge impact on levels of volunteering 42 .During the war, volunteer aid offered to at-risk populations can reduce the prevalence of psychiatric symptoms and suffering during times of conflict and violence 34,43 .Domaradzki et al. 13 reported that the motivation to be volunteers was due to a general willingness to help and volunteer on behalf of Ukrainian refugees.As the Russo-Ukrainian war is unique and volunteering targets Ukrainians during the current crisis, the factors associated with motivational volunteer functions are expected to differ from other civilian situations (e.g., volunteer work in schools or elderly homes) 44 .The current war may attribute different meanings and functions to volunteerism.During wartime, volunteering can be viewed as social resources or social expression of support and sympathy for victims of the war.This study provides novel information about the mental well-being and individual-level factors associated with motivational volunteering functions in Ukraine and its neighbor, Poland.The results of our survey can be translated into practice.They allow the identification of difficulties experienced by volunteers and indicate the relationship of these factors to motivation, which is important for building psychological support systems for volunteers engaging in relief activities in similar difficult situations in the future.This finding can contribute to the development of civil society.
The VFI identifies seven personal and social functions served by volunteering: career (goal of obtaining career-related experience); enhancement (psychological development); protective (reduce negative feelings or personal problems); value (acting upon important personal values related to altruistic and humanitarian concerns    20 .There were significant differences in the motivational functions of volunteering between Polish and Ukrainian volunteers.Ukrainian volunteers reported significantly higher scores in protective, social, and religious volunteer functions.This finding suggests that Ukrainian volunteers could significantly reduce negative feelings and strengthen social networks and religious faith by volunteering during the Russo-Ukrainian war.In contrast, Polish volunteers reported significantly higher scores in motivation based on understanding and enhancement.This finding suggests that Polish volunteers were significantly more likely to engage in volunteerism to develop their skills and psychosocial resources during the Russo-Ukrainian war.There were no differences between Polish and Ukrainian volunteers in career and values goals.This finding suggests that volunteers from both countries shared common values and that the motivation to work for war refugees was unrelated to their careers.Our findings support the conceptualization of volunteerism during the Russo-Ukrainian War as multidimensional 45 .This study identifies three dimensions that provide us with the essential building blocks for our conceptualization.First, the post-traumatic symptoms, as indicated by IES-R scores but not levels of anxiety or depression, correlate with the motivational functions of volunteering.Jobst et al. 46 reported that around 57% of German refugee helpers had experienced a traumatic event, and around 3% of the helpers had a positive PTSD screening.Second, overall coping score but not resilience or psychological capital correlated with volunteering functioning.Third, female gender and religion are the only sociodemographic factors that correlate with the motivational functions of volunteering.The above findings were found in Polish and Ukrainian participants, which was unsurprising.Volunteering is collectively oriented in nature and represents a distinct type of social bond and social ties between Poles and Ukrainians 29 .The act of volunteering stood out as a primary expression of core human values such as altruism, compassion, democracy, justice, and social responsibility 47 .Coping with stress scores was positively associated with the motivational functions of volunteering.Volunteering provides distinctive opportunities like helping and prosocial actions 48 .Our findings correspond with observations made by a recent study on Polish volunteers during the Russo-Ukrainian War, which described helping Ukrainian refugees both as a moral imperative and a satisfying experience by increasing self-esteem and accomplishment 13 .

Limitations and future studies
Although this is one of only a few studies conducted on the motivational functioning of Polish and Ukrainian volunteers during the Russo-Ukrainian War, this study has several limitations.Firstly, this study did not explore other factors related to the intensity of the motivational functions of volunteering, including economic and political factors, temperamental and other personality traits than resilience (hardiness) and traits that are part of psychological capital 29 .Motives are likely to be connected with other traits, such as internal or external locus of control, self-esteem, system of values or other individual features.It would be worth to study the role of social support volunteers get from others.Due to the above limitations, we do not consider our findings the ultimate theory behind volunteering in the Russo-Ukrainian War.Secondly, our study did not explore the negative aspects of volunteering, including burnout 49 .Thirdly, there were significantly more women than men in the sample.While this is consistent with statistics 50 , as more women engage in volunteering for refugees, it may be important due to gender differences in coping with stress and motivation.

Table 1 .
Cronbach's alpha coefficients for Polish and Ukrainian language versions of the measures.VFI Volunteer Function Inventory, PSS-10 Perceived Stress Scale, IES-R Impact of Event Scale-Revised, DASS-21 Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale, Brief-COPE Brief Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced questionnaire, DSR-15R Norwegian Dispositional Resilience (Hardiness) Scale, PsyCap Positive Psychological Capital questionnaire.

Table 3 .
Psychosocial profile of the Polish and Ukrainian volunteers (N = 720).Significant values are marked with asterisks.The global results of each tool are in bold.